Department of Environment and Heritage Protection
Queensland’s waste and recycling strategy
Quick Guide
The Waste—Everyone’s responsibility: Queensland Waste Avoidance and Resource Productivity Strategy (2014-2024)
sets out the many opportunities and challenges ahead for Queensland to improve its waste avoidance and
recovery performance.
Under Queensland’s Waste Reduction and Recycling Act 2011, the Queensland Government sets a long-term strategy
for minimising the generation of waste and its impact on the environment. The strategy must be reviewed every three
years.
This strategy has been developed collaboratively with representatives from business and industry, the waste and
resource recovery sector, local government, and community and environment groups.
The strategy provides a high-level vision and direction for Queensland over the 10 years to 2024. The strategy’s vision
is for Queensland to become a national leader in avoiding unnecessary consumption and waste generation, adopting
innovative resource recovery approaches, and managing all products and materials as valuable and finite resources.
In 2012-13 Queensland produced almost 8.5 million tonnes of general waste from everyday household, business and construction activities.
55%
of general waste was sent to landfill
45%
of general waste was recovered, from the following streams:
61% construction
42% business
33% household
14.9 million tonnes of hazardous waste—not all of which can be recycled—was generated by heavy industrial activity including:
Ash from power generation
Asbestos
Food processing waste
Industrial process waste such as galvanizing liquid
Strategy objectives
The strategy sets four main objectives, based around the waste and resource management hierarchy.
• Driving cultural change: All stakeholders recognise their role in
meeting the vision of the waste strategy, and are informed and
empowered to participate in achieving its goals and objectives
Most preferable
Avoid or reduce
• Avoidance and minimisation: Queensland will realise all
opportunities (environmental, economic and social) from
maximising sustainable consumption and production
Reuse
Recycle
• Reuse, recovery and recycling: Queensland will optimise
economic benefits from reuse, recovery and recycling
• Management, treatment and disposal: Queensland will reduce
the impact of waste on human health and the environment
through improved waste practices
Recover energy
Treat
Dispose
Least preferable
Strategy targets
The strategy sets targets for improving waste avoidance and recovery,
taking regional differences into account where possible. By 2024, the
strategy aims to:
Priority waste stream
Priority material
Plastic waste
Agricultural plastics
Packaging waste
Plastic bottles, bags and other consumer
plastics
Organic waste
Households:
• green waste
• food waste
High volume wastes
with an existing
resource value
Concrete
Treated timber
Plasterboard
Regional impact
waste
Mining and industry development
Mattresses
Orphan agricultural and veterinary
chemicals
Complementary
national product
stewardship
measures
Fluorescent lights
Used tyres
Used oil
• reduce the generation of waste by 5% per capita
• improve recycling of municipal (domestic) solid waste from
33% to 50%:
„„ 55% in metropolitan areas
„„ 45% in regional centres
„„ to the extent practically achievable in remote areas
• improve recycling of commercial and industrial general waste
from 42% to 55%
• improve recycling of construction and demolition waste from
61% to 80%
• reduce by 15% the amount of waste going to landfill over the life
of the strategy
• improve management of problem or priority wastes.
Priority wastes
The strategy identifies the priority, or problem, wastes on which we
need to focus our efforts.
Priorities include wastes of state significance, as well as those that
have national importance and for which Queensland can investigate
measures to support action already underway.
Commercial premises:
• hospitality
• food processing
Under the Waste Reduction and Recycling Act 2011, priority wastes are:
• Wastes with high disposal impacts (such as toxicity or
greenhouse gas emissions)
• Wastes with social impacts (such as community concern or amenity)
• Those wastes whose recovery would present resource savings or
business opportunities
Implementation
Key opportunities for implementing the strategy include:
Organic waste
• Creating awareness amongst communities and businesses to inform better purchasing decisions and alternatives to disposal
of organic waste.
• Recovering materials to feed into compost or alternative waste technologies to recover materials and energy from waste.
Partnerships
• Identifying inefficiencies and opportunities, and building collaborative partnerships between industries or government,
could deliver substantial savings to Queensland businesses.
• By treating waste as a valuable resource, materials and resources will continue to circulate within the economy, generating
jobs and further profit.
• Increase efficiencies through government/industry and industry/industry partnerships designed to cut waste (e.g. ecoBiz).
Regulatory initiatives
• Streamlining regulation to provide industry with certainty, stimulating research, innovation and investment in Queensland.
• Removing barriers to the development of new technologies, particularly for alternative waste technologies, and providing
policy direction will encourage investment, market certainty and development.
Regional development
• Improving regional access to waste technologies through appropriate planning and industry placement.
• Encouraging local reuse and markets for re-usable products to increase waste opportunities in regional areas.
• Creating certainty for industry development through infrastructure mapping and use of regulatory tools and reforms.
New technologies
• Providing additional research and development activities to grow productivity, reduce waste and add value to
Queensland’s economy.
You can view the full strategy at www.ehp.qld.gov.au/waste